Sony's premier tactical shooter series is back in the hands of Zipper Interactive and ready to redeploy this fall with SOCOM 4. Featuring 32-player multiplayer, what does SOCOM 4 mean for the future of Zipper Interactive's MAG?

A militant revolutionary has seized control of an important South Asian country, and it's up to you, the Ops Com, to lead your five-man team through jungle and urban environments in order to put a stop to his plans before it's too late. This is the setting for SOCOM 4, now under development at Zipper Interactive, the developer responsible for SOCOM 1, 2, 3, and Combined Assault on the PlayStation 2.

Zipper Interactive moved on to MAG for the PlayStation 3, while developer Slant Six Games took over the franchise for SOCOM: U.S. Navy SEALs Confrontation, which didn't turn out too well. It's good to see the franchise coming home.

And the game is coming home big, with 32-player multiplayer on top of a 14 mission single player campaign that clocks in at around 12 hours. You can check out IGN's exclusive preview for more details.

While there are many questions about the game that will be answered as the year progresses, Zipper Interactive's senior community manager Jeremy Dunham addresses the most important one to MAG fans in a post on the PlayStation Blog, while expressing joy at once again working on the SOCOM franchise.

First, if you play MAG and wonder what this means for the game's future, wonder no more – we're still fully committed to supporting MAG for a long, long time and the addition of another game in our lineup doesn't change that. Second, it's been great to hear from SOCOM fanatics located in every corner of the globe as we led into today's announcement. We're extremely excited to be attached to this beloved franchise again and knowing that so many people wanted us to return to something that already meant so much to us has been both inspiring and touching – so thank you to all of you who wanted it to happen! We look forward to living up to your expectations.